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Movies: from obscurity to ominpotence
Lord_of_all_Pie
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So what is going on in cinema land?
Why are we being constantly bombarded with movie trailers where the viewers have no clue what is happening, or where the entire plot is revealed in 90 seconds worth of sound-bytes? I went and saw The Dark Knight, and saw a movie trailer for Body of Lies shows itself. After watching that trailer I am firmly convinced that they took the most ambiguous and inane parts of the movie, and then strung them together for the viewing audience.
At Hellboy 2 I saw the trailer for Death Race. This is a comprehensive synopsis of what you would see in the trailer (not sure why a spoiler warning is necessary considering it is in the trailer but here it goes!):
Why are we being constantly bombarded with movie trailers where the viewers have no clue what is happening, or where the entire plot is revealed in 90 seconds worth of sound-bytes? I went and saw The Dark Knight, and saw a movie trailer for Body of Lies shows itself. After watching that trailer I am firmly convinced that they took the most ambiguous and inane parts of the movie, and then strung them together for the viewing audience.
At Hellboy 2 I saw the trailer for Death Race. This is a comprehensive synopsis of what you would see in the trailer (not sure why a spoiler warning is necessary considering it is in the trailer but here it goes!):
a Professional Driver (Jason Statham) is sent to a prison where the prisoners compete to win a full pardon in a televised "death race". Jason Statham’s character was set up (though not by a one-armed man this time) by the head of the prison (Joan Allen), to compete in this race. Statham finds out that he was set up and is out for revenge, while Joan Allen will attempt to kill Statham before the truth is revealed. To use a quote from Scott Kurtz “we pretty much know the entire plot of the movie at this point. All that’s left for the film to do is fill in some gaps for us.”
Is there a happy medium at all? Or am I being overly negative and critical? When Ghandi came to England, he was once asked, "what he thought of Western Civilization." Ghandi replied: "I think it would be a very good idea."
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1) Spoil that stuff. :P
2) I wholeheartedly agree with you. I just saw the Death Race trailer myself tonight, and made a similar remark. I'm really not sure WHY studios do that.
3) Honestly, the James Bond trailer showed too much of the plot, as well.
No I agree, The Dark Knight did a good job presenting us with who was going to be in the movie but not telling us much of what was going to happen.
Just a hunch on my part though.
In this case, the story isn't a selling point so it doesn't matter if the audience gets that all from the trailer. In fact, it might be better to give the story away early, as this means the movie can get away with minimal exposition before it turns into an hour long car chase with machine guns and explosions.
Edit: I think Hancock did a fairly good job at limiting the information in it's trailer. It took a much darker turn towards the end then I was expecting at any rate.
Movies get trailers that are 2 minute versions of the actual movie, and in many cases actually show scenes from the final act or climax.
Films tend to have more non-linear trailers, focus on the performances and story.
I've attended a couple of focus groups about movie trailers, and 8 out of the 10 people there were the "dur, I need to know everything about the movie" type. Some guy's major gripe with the Cloverfield trailer was he didn't know what was going on, he didn't know the name of the movie, and he didn't know why it looked like "a video camera".
There Will Be Blood had some great trailers.
You can get away with some teasers... like, for Star Trek or Terminator, you'd just need to play the music and show a spaceship/robot, and you get exactly what you're supposed to know, especially if you know about the Star Trek or Terminator franchises, which anyone short of Rip Van Winkle would probably know. However, for a brand new franchise, I might have no goddamn clue as to what's going on if you just show me some guy's arm, shakeycam, some buildings, some people screaming, and a date on the screen and maybe a url, so that alone may not get any butts in the seat.
Now, fake trailers like the one they put out for The Shining on Youtube would be great in a movie theater, but in a total schadenfreude kind of way. "Hey, let's go see a nice family movie kids!" ... "AHHHH. Mommy!"
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Personally, I fucking hate movie trailers, mostly because I hate spoilers, and that's all movie trailers generally are. I wish someone would figure out a way to advertise a movie without showing the movie in trailers.
Did anyone ever see Big Fat Liar with Frankie Muniz? Every single good joke in that movie was contained in the trailer and the rest of the movie was a chance to catch up on your sleep.
Lord of War and Iron Man were solid trailers. I also throught both street kings trailers were top notch and gave you a good taste of the movie, but at the same time tricked you.
I always had an idea for a movie trailer that would be like a mini movie. That way none of the real movie is spoiled, but you still get a taste for the way the movie would play out. It wouldn't work for all films, but an action movie with a quick action scene and then the credits and coming soon would definately make me want to see it.
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pleasepaypreacher.net
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/trailer1/large.html
An honorable mention is also the very first Spider-Man teaser, Raimi shot footage specifically for this trailer. This is the one known as the Spider-Man "Twin Towers" trailer. It was released about 4 months before 9/11 happened. Here it is in full:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-r7qymfa0Q
Naturally Sony pulled it and never spoke of it again (it's not even on the DVDs, or even mentioned). But I remember seeing it in theaters and just being so exited (I was 13 :P). It really got the audience excited for the movie, and it's a shame the trailer can't be watched as "just a great preview", given it's context. But I still love it.
I also hate watching those stupid pre-show montages at the beginning of Battlestar Galactica. What the hell are they thinking?
I hereby move that we ban all advertisements or trailers for filmed entertainment.
"If you hire Machete to kill the bad guys, you'd better not be one of the bad guys"
1) "I have no idea what that was about."
2) "OMG I HAVE NO IDEA BUT I
Edit: I started closing my eyes during the pre-show montages at the beginning of Season 3, and wish that I'd started doing it a lot sooner. Makes everything way more suspenseful.
Double edit: Strangely, I think my favorite trailer ever might have been that first teaser for Halo 2 with the Chief walking through the station and the little readouts of all your accomplishments during the first game. Suddenly, you realize, holy crap, I am awesome...and then it flashes SAVING THE EARTH: ...IN PROGRESS... and then everything just goes to 11.
Is there a happy medium? Yes, but it's hard to get to. I haven't seen a whole lot of trailers that pull it off. That being said, I'd rather have too little information than too much. There is nothing more I hate than watching a movie and exiting feeling like the trailer was the entire movie condensed to two minutes.
On the topic of good trailers though, I'll say that the trailer for Lucky Number Slevin was awesome.
I agree with you slevin had a great trailer. I also really liked Die Hard 4s trailer. When doing a sequel to a movie with a well known hero, show us the threat and then show us the hero. Great Job trailer maker.
pleasepaypreacher.net
TDK trailer was awesome and the fact that it didn't do the final film justice is even better. A trailer is a very short preview and should entice the customer just like any other advertisement.
Sadly there are some awesome trailers that led to me to spend $$$ on crappy films :evil:
Worst Offender:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=elIZWU07yAo
Second Worst:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dHva0-ckVMw
I still find that hilarious, it's definitely the way that all comedy trailers are shown.
I hate trailers for a variety of reasons. They waste far too much of your time, while you're waiting for the movie to start. Plus, as everyone has stated, they can really ruin the film for you.
When there's a twist in a film, I don't like to even be told that much. I like to go in thinking that it's all straightforward and then be surprised, but trailers often hint far too heavily that "the ending will blow you away".
That's not just the trailer. The whole first half of the movie felt like a romantic comedy. Then it got... weird.
That said, sometimes truly brilliant trailers come along and get me to go see a movie I wouldn't go see otherwise. Occasionally this results in me being disappointed, like when I saw the absolutely fabulous Garden State trailer and then was thoroughly underwhelmed when I saw the actual movie.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=la53nY41c9M
EDIT: Seconded being suckered in by the Ultraviolet trailer, good god that movie was horrifically bad.
The worst offender is Smokin' Aces, which billed itself as a crazy over the top action flick with wacky characters and lots of shooting, and ended up being a talky, weird, twisty turny plot-centric thriller with like three incredibly brief action scenes at most
I was terribly disappointed and probably would not have been had the trailers not fooled me into expecting something different
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I just watched In Bruges, and as far as I can tell the trailer went as such:
Another good trailer I'm told is the one for that Ben Stiller movie... Heartbreak Kid? I haven't seen it but everything I've read suggests that all the stuff with Will Arnett's wife is only the very beginning.
I remember back when Buffy the vampire slayer was first being shown on TV I used to run from the room whenever trailers for the week's episode were being shown. Same with Lost. I really don't like knowing anything but the very basics before I watch something: principle cast (not including cameos), general setting and tone. With a TV show you already know all that stuff.
I once punched a mate in the cinema when he leaned over in the middle of a Harry Potter movie to tell me that 'this next scene's really good'.
I don't even like Harry Potter, but now I'm all expecting something good, and if it's not great he's ruined it. And even if it is he's ruined the surprise.
i thought they were making it direct to dvd?
Yeah, I felt like that movie tried to have both the over-the-top ridiculousness of a good mindless action flik and the serious dark overtones of a, well, more serious movie. I don't know what genre that second category would be (16 blocks comes to mind, actually, as an example of that kind of action movie). Needless to say they kind of worked at cross-purposes, because you can't have ridiculous characters/action and expect us to take the whole thing seriously.
Wow! I felt exactly the same about the Garden State trailer, I saw it like 3 or 4 months prior to it's release. The movie was underwhelming simply because it wasn't as effective as the trailer.
I did however come to like the movie sometime later and appreciate it for what it was. As opposed to living up to a well edited trailer.
What was the name of that song in the trailer?
I picked up the 300 soundtrack a few days after seeing the movie, but it wasn't included. I was pretty disappointed.
Apparently it's been bumped up to a full theatrical release, last I heard.